Defense attorneys accused prosecutors of improperly striking the only three Black candidates left in the jury pool.
By Chase Rogers, Jane Harper,Staff Writers
McKINNEY — Collin County prosecutors and defense attorneys spent hours Wednesday whittling down a pool of about 250 prospective jurors, selecting the people tasked with deciding the fate of a teenager accused of murder.
The Karmelo Anthony case has shaken Frisco, drawn national headlines and stoked racial animus on social media. The teenager he is accused of fatally stabbing, Austin Metcalf, was white. Anthony is Black.
Defense attorneys late in the day accused prosecutors of striking three Black jurors — the only Black candidates left in the jury pool — without proper cause. Prosecutors are required to provide a “race neutral” reason for striking the jurors, and they said it was because all three were educators.
District Judge John Roach Jr. sided with prosecutors.
The 12 jurors and six alternates will be asked to decide the case only on what they see and hear in court over the next two weeks.
The trial centers on a confrontation under a tent during a rainy high school track meet in Frisco last year. Anthony is charged with murdering Metcalf. Both were 17 at the time.
The questions from both sides sketched the outlines of the case jurors are expected to hear. Prosecutors appeared focused on whether jurors could hold a young defendant responsible for murder if the evidence supported it.
Defense attorneys signaled they may center their case on Anthony’s self-defense claim, highlighting Texas law on carrying knives and asking whether jurors would hold it against someone who chose to defend themselves rather than retreat from a threat.
Hundreds of prospective jurors dismissed
About 600 Collin County residents were summoned to the courthouse Monday for jury duty. By Wednesday morning, prosecutors and defense attorneys had reduced the pool to roughly 250.
Sandra Guerra Thompson, a University of Houston Law Center professor who has studied jury selection, said larger jury pools like the one in Collin County are generally used in cases that have drawn significant public attention or pretrial publicity.
Calling a large pool of potential jurors could reflect the prosecution and defense “erring on the side of caution,” because many of them could be dismissed for a variety of reasons, Thompson said.
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Generally, lawyers on both sides can ask to remove potential jurors for cause, but the judge decides whether there is a legal reason to excuse them, such as if they cannot be fair or follow the law.
Each side also has a limited number of peremptory strikes, which allow lawyers to remove potential jurors without having to prove they are unfit to serve.
Strikes based on things like profession are allowed, but under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1986 decision in Batson v. Kentucky, lawyers cannot use those strikes to remove prospective jurors because of race.
Thompson said successful Batson challenges are rare, in part because the evidence needed to prove the strike was made on racial grounds and because lawyers accused can offer other rationales.
“It’s very hard to come by,” she said.
Defense probes opinions on immigration enforcement
Mike Howard, Anthony’s lead defense attorney, asked the prospective jurors whether they would hold it against someone who chose to “stand their ground” and defend themselves rather than walk away from a threat. He hinted that the knife found at the scene after Anthony’s arrest was small enough to legally carry in public.
Howard also asked prospective jurors to rate their view on the current state of immigration enforcement in the county on a scale of 1 to 10 — with 1 meaning they strongly supported it and 10 meaning they were strongly opposed.
The most common answer was 5, though some placed themselves at either end of the scale. Others declined to answer even though that was not one of the options given to them.
Lisa Blue, a Dallas jury consultant, lawyer and psychologist who is not involved in the Anthony case, said the question was likely aimed at gauging the prospective jurors political leanings and feelings about people of color.
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The case has drawn outsized attention from right-wing influencers, and the discourse has often focused on race.
Outside the courthouse Wednesday, the gatherings were smaller than they had been at the start of the trial, when dozens of demonstrators supporting both Anthony and Metcalf stood on opposite sides of the street.
The attention around the case has extended beyond the courthouse as well.
On Tuesday, Frisco police arrested Jake Lang, a far-right influencer and Jan. 6 defendant pardoned by President Donald Trump, on a criminal trespass warrant tied to an incident at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, where the stabbing happened last year.
Frisco ISD previously confirmed trespassing charges had been filed after Lang posted a video online showing he had entered the stadium after Metcalf’s death.
After the jury panel was seated, Roach, the judge, sent them home.
“I’m going to say it again,” he said, “don’t discuss the case with anyone.”
Staff writer Lola Jahant contributed reporting.
Public Safety Reporter
Chase Rogers covers the Dallas Police Department, Dallas Fire-Rescue, and broader public safety issues in Dallas. He grew up in Granbury and studied journalism at Texas State University in San Marcos. Before joining The News, he reported for the Austin American-Statesman and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. His work has earned investigative reporting and Freedom of Information awards, including Texas Managing Editor’s Star Reporter of the Year in 2022. He can be reached at 361-239-6527 and on Signal at crogers.95.
